Monday, 27 September 2010

In my previous recipe, i mentioned to use chicken stock. Now, while you can buy it from any supermarket - i find it daft to waste money on something that can be made with leftovers from your sunday roast, that can be stored in a freezer.

First, take your chicken carcass & any stray bones, and put them all in a saucepan with about 2 pints or so of water. Add the salt, parsley and peppercorns. Take the garlic clove and just break it, no need to crush it or even take the skin off, just smash it enough to open it up a bit.

Bring the water to the boil, and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid OFF. Take off the heat, and you should end up with something that looks like this:

Not amazing to look at, but thats why you strain the stock into a jug with a sieve:

See? Dead simple, and using no ingredients that you shouldn't have laying around your kitchen, at hopefully, no cost! :)

Wednesday, 22 September 2010

As the summer is at an end, and Autumn is now here, it's time to start thinking of some more warming foods than salad & cold cuts.

Soups are very simple to make, and most of the time require a single pan to make them in. They're versatile, in the fact that you can take almost anything and make a soup out of it.

So, to start with, i'm going to tell you how to make a timeless classic - Cream of Tomato Soup. Now, it does require two saucepans, but trust me, it's worth it!

You will need the following ingredients:

1oz of butter (28g) - just use a large square of butter, no need to be really precise! 1.5lb of fresh tomatoes (800g)1 large onion1 carrot1 clove of garlic3 tablespoons of flour2 pints (1 litre or so) of chicken stock, or water - i prefer using chicken stock for the depth of flavour. Chicken Stock cube Chopped basil - dried or freshSingle Cream / MilkSalt & Pepper

Utensils needed:

2 Large saucepansSharp knifePotato peelerWooden spoonLarge Sieve

First, take your saucepan and put it on the stove on a low heat. Add the butter, leave it to melt. Chop up the onion and add it to the saucepan with a large pinch of salt (about half a teaspoon). Peel the carrot, chop it up into small chunks. Crush the garlic clove with a garlic press, or chop finely if you don't have one. Add both the carrot and the garlic to the onion. You want to brown off the veg, but keep it on a low enough heat that the garlic doesn't burn - if you do, you'll end up with a very bitter taste.

While this is doing - mix the chicken stock cube with your chicken stock or water, making sure it's totally dissolved.

Once the vegetables have been browned off, add the flour all in one go. mix in until you have a thick, almost dry paste. Add a little of the stock, mixing thoroughly until the paste becomes loose, and there are no lumps. I suggest adding a little at a time until the mix has reached a smooth consistency, before adding the rest of the stock. At this point, you want to grind some pepper in, white or black is fine, coarse or fine, your choice!

Roughly chop your tomato's - there's no need to skin them, just de-stalk them, add them in halfs, quarters, however you want, it doesn't really matter. Add them to the saucepan along with the basil, put the lid on, and simmer with the lid ON for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring every so often, to make sure nothing sticks to the pan (not an issue if you use non-stick pans!).

After your 20/30 minutes, turn the heat off. Put your large sieve over the other saucepan in preparation for the next stage.

Take the hand blender, and have at the soup - literally, you want to macerate ALL the tomato's, onions, carrots - basically, think of someone you really dislike, and pretend the soup is their face or something - thats how smooth it needs to be ;)

Once blended, you want to strain the soup, using the sieve, into the other saucepan. This ensures that any bits of vegetable that survived the blending are removed, mainly the seeds from the tomato's.

Push the soup through the sieve in stages, don't load the sieve to the top. Push the soup through using your wooden spoon - circular motions in either direction will sort it out nicely.

Finally, stir in about a tablespoon of cream or milk and serve. Again the milk/cream is personal preference, and some may find the soup already rich & creamy enough.

You can make a cream of chicken soup in the same manner. The only differences to the recipe are obviously the omission of the tomato's, the inclusion of chicken leftovers/scraps and the order in which you blend. For cream of chicken soup - after adding the stock, you simmer for 5 minutes, blend, strain, add the chicken, and simmer for another 5-10 minutes before adding the cream/milk and serving.

First of all, welcome to Rational Recipes! My primary aim for this blog, is to share my recipe and cooking knowledge with everyone. I've been told time and again by dozens of people that i need to start writing this stuff down and getting it out to the masses so, here goes.

A little about me first of all - i'm 28 years old and i've been cooking since i was about 6 years old, constantly involved with whatever my mum was doing in the kitchen, trying to help out as much as i can. Later on, i discovered that i was a fairly capable cook, mainly thanks to the encouragement and support i recieved from my friends. I'm usually a little dismissive of my skills, constantly doubting that i'm much good, but if other people like what i have to cook, then bugger it, i might as well give it a shot!

The joy of cooking for me comes from the sense of accomplishment, that you've set out to make something, added your own little twist, and it's turned out well enough to be able to serve it to others.

One caveat though - i don't do 'fancy' food. By that i mean, don't be expecting michelin starred nouvelle cuisine with exotic ingredients. Occasionally i'll make something 'special' but nothing that's outside the realm of possibility for a reasonably competent cook with a standard set of utensils.

I'm genuinely dismayed to see that the cooking ability of the general public has decreased so dramatically, a by-product of so many convenience foods and a lack of proper education both at home and in the classroom - the removal of Home Economics from the British curriculum certainly doesn't help!